title: Biochemical indices of response to hydroxychloroquine and sodium aurothiomalate in rheumatoid arthritis.
abstract: Biochemical and clinical changes have been monitored in 30 patients with rheumatoid arthritis treated with either hydroxychloroquine or sodium aurothiomalate over a period of 6 months. Acute-phase reactants improved in both treatment groups, while serum sulphydryl and serum histidine improved only in the gold-treated patients. Correlation matrices were constructed from mean clinical and biochemical data at successive clinic visits. Correlations obtained with gold were more frequent and of a higher level of significance than those obtained with hydroxychloroquine at the doses we studied. This lends support to the use of correlation matrices as a screening test for potential long-term antirheumatoid activity of drugs in man.
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D001172:Arthritis, Rheumatoid / Q000097:blood* / Q000188:drug therapy; D004341:Drug Evaluation / Q000379:methods; D005260:Female; D006052:Gold Sodium Thiomalate / Q000627:therapeutic use*; D006801:Humans; D006886:Hydroxychloroquine / Q000627:therapeutic use*; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D013223:Statistics as Topic; D013997:Time Factors
chemical_list: D006052:Gold Sodium Thiomalate; D006886:Hydroxychloroquine